City passes on road project, focuses on paving at parks

In recent months, members of the Holton City Commission have expressed interest in building a road that would connect Gilliland Drive, located west of Holton Community Hospital, to the Holton Industrial Park.

Construction of the road was proposed with the idea that getting truck traffic off U.S. Highway 75 near the hospital would prevent ac­cidents such as an October 2015 mishap involving a United Parcel Service semitrailer. And in late March, city commissioners met with county and HCH officials to tour the land where such a road might be built.

But in the past few weeks, Commissioner Dan Brenner, based on input from Holton residents, said he has come to the conclusion that now may not be the time to build such a road.

“I can’t support it this year, and this is based on what the citizens are telling me,” Brenner said during a recent city commission meeting that involved discussion of some possible capital improvement pro­jects for the city in 2016.

The proposal of a connecting road from Gilliland Drive to the in­dustrial park was one of several possible projects and purchases that could come from the city’s capital improvement and equipment re­serve funds in 2016, commissioners noted at their April 4 meeting.

According to figures provided by Holton City Manager Bret Bauer in February, the capital improvement fund currently has a balance of $199,874.77 and should have an additional $920,000 added to it by the end of this year, totaling $1,119,874.77. The equipment re­serve fund currently has $268,849.49 in it, and an addition of $232,500 is proposed by year’s end, for a total of $501,349.49.

Several capital improvement projects were included on a list given to commissioners at the meeting. In addition to the con­necting road, commissioners also discussed curb and gutter projects, municipal swimming pool repairs, the clarifier at the city’s water treatment plant and paving the parking lots at the city’s municipal parks, with the last item getting the most favor from commissioners.

As for the equipment reserve fund, commissioners noted the main purchase they would like to make from that fund this year — if they do — would involve a street sweeper to replace an old one in the city’s possession for about two decades. The street sweeper the city has now, as Holton street foreman Greg Tanking told commissioners, needs to be replaced soon.

The city’s street sweeper, Tank­ing said, continues to “limp along” with regular — and costly — maintenance that has gotten to be a real drain on city funds.

Commissioners noted that in pricing used street sweepers, prices have ranged between $70,000 and $90,000, while the cost estimates they have seen on new sweepers have ranged between $190,000 and $210,000. While buying new may all but deplete what’s currently in the equipment reserve fund, Tank­ing told commissioners that it would give the city a machine that could last “30 to 40 years.”

Furthermore, Tanking said, buying a used street sweeper would have the city “rolling the dice on how long it’s going to last,” par­ticularly since most cities putting used sweepers up for sale are in the same boat Holton is with its sweeper. He added that the city was not likely to get any trade-in value on the old sweeper, since there is not a high demand for used sweep­ers.

“Now is the time to get a new one,” he told commissioners. “Waiting is not going to make them cheaper.”

Commissioners agreed, directing city staff to seek bids for a new sweeper but noting that if the price of a new sweeper is still higher than what the city wants to pay, the city does not have to buy it.

“I’m just asking how much a machine costs,” Commissioner Tim Morris said. “We can adjust it from there.”

Concerning the plan to build a connecting road from Gilliland Drive to the industrial park, an es­timate provided by Bauer put the total cost at $229,151.75, including curb and gutter and concrete pav­ing. Morris said the estimate left him “taken aback,” but he still wanted to know if it was possible to build the road and get some heavy truck traffic off U.S. 75 near the hospital.

“We’re fighting enough wrecks out there as it is,” Morris said. “The state has told us they’re not going to reduce the speed limit out there, and there’ no more turning lanes they will build for us.”

But when Brenner said he had heard enough comments from Holton residents in opposition to building the connecting road, other commissioners stated their agree­ment that it would not be a good project for this year.

“It wouldn’t be used enough to warrant the cost at this point,” Commissioner Twila White said.

Commissioner Mike Meerpohl agreed, saying that not very many people would benefit from having that connecting road. Brenner added that he thought having the road in place would be a good idea, but not this year, particularly since involving any city employees in building it would take them away from summer road projects that would benefit more motorists.

One of those projects suggested by Bauer involved reconstruction of the roads around the new Holton Elementary School, since heavy truck and machine traffic used in construction of the new school have been “tearing up” roads around the school. However, he added that if that work would be done by a city crew, that work may not begin until summer 2017.

“We can’t really get started on that until school construction is done,” Bauer said. “Plus, we couldn’t get bids until July, and that would mean we couldn’t get started on the actual construction until August or September, when school is in session. And we’d rather do that when kids are out of school for the summer.”

The estimated cost for milling and overlay work on Sixth Street from Arizona Avenue to the alley east of Colorado Elementary School was $30,000, while a pro­posed cost for concrete work on Colorado Avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets was listed at $46,400. Both projects would likely be contracted out, commissioners noted.

Bauer suggested rolling those projects in with three other pro­posed mill-and-overlay projects on Hillcrest and Emerald Drives (es­timated cost $140,000), the 300 block of Dakota Avenue (estimated cost $15,000) and Banner Road between Arizona and Iowa avenues (estimated cost $190,000) for 2017.

“Put them together in one large project,” he said. “It might be less expensive, because it would be a bigger project.”

For now, commissioners contin­ued to express favor toward sur­facing the parking lots at the city’s parks, including Countryside, Chandler and Rafter’s parks, in the short term. An estimated cost of $120,080 was presented for paving or resurfacing all five parks.

“The construction season is upon us,” Bauer said.